With Hatchimals scarce, who gets dibs — online shoppers, or those in the store?

You've saved your holiday shopping until the last minute, and Target's website won't let you buy and reserve the one toy your child desperately wants to see under the tree for pickup at your local store.

There's still a chance to be the holiday hero, but you may want to hurry: The retailer often shuts down online sales from specific stores when stocks dip to avoid disappointing customers who do make the trip to the store.

Retailers are increasingly turning stores into tiny distribution centers that ship items to customers' homes and serve as pickup spots for customers who have made purchases online. That means they also have to decide how to divvy up a store's stock between customers who browse the aisles in person or at home in their pajamas.

Target ships online orders from 1,000 of its stores, up from 460 last year. To avoid empty shelves, Target will turn off the order pickup or ship-from-store option on some items when a store's stockpile falls below a certain threshold, said Target spokesman Eddie Baeb. Stores that ship also get extra inventory.

An online customer likely doesn't care which store or warehouse handles their purchase. The shopper already walking the aisles does. Exactly how many items Target holds back depends on the product and how quickly it typically sells.

"When a customer comes to the store, there's an expectation they're carrying items home in a basket, not getting them shipped. We're really trying to fill that need," Baeb said.

Those limits are also a "buffer" in case the retailer's inventory systems aren't keeping up with customers' purchases, reducing the chances Target will accidentally sell the same item to two different customers.

Gloria Casas / The Courier-News

Customers line up Dec. 5, 2016, outside the South Elgin Toys R Us store waiting for a chance to buy the season's most popular toys. Toys R Us does not sell some hot items online. The line was longer until a manager told people the store received only a few items, including 14 Hatchimals.

Customers line up Dec. 5, 2016, outside the South Elgin Toys R Us store waiting for a chance to buy the season's most popular toys. Toys R Us does not sell some hot items online. The line was longer until a manager told people the store received only a few items, including 14 Hatchimals. (Gloria Casas / The Courier-News)

Other retailers, like Toys R Us, don't try to guess how many items to hold back for in-store customers.

Even on Christmas Eve, the retailer doesn't bump back online orders to help procrastinating brick-and-mortar holiday shoppers. Purchases, whatever the format, are first-come, first-served, said Toys R Us spokeswoman Jessica Offerjost.

Kohl's, which has shipped items from all its stores since July 2015, has a similar policy. But the department store does give store associates discretion to shunt an online order to another store if a shopper at the store is hankering for the same item, said Kohl's spokeswoman Julia Fennelly.

After running into some challenges keeping products in stock last holiday season as more stores filled online orders, Toys R Us is trying to keep its stores fuller to cover online and in-store customers without reserving items for either group.

"This year we're definitely in a better position," Offerjost said.

The rare exceptions to the Toys R Us first-come, first-served, online or in stores rule: Hatchimals, the coveted furry animal toys, and Nintendo's NES Classic video game system, which all retailers have struggled to keep on their shelves.

This holiday season, Toys R Us will sell both products only in stores, not online. As shipments come in, each store will get some items, all of which will go on sale in coordinated nationwide rollouts.

"They're such popular items, we want to make sure customers at all stores have a shot," Offerjost said.

An earlier version of this story misstated the way Target manages its inventory.